Curses

[FollowerofBanjo]

Hey I'm doing a new campaign and one of the characters has a family curse... The problem is i cant think of any cool P.C. curses other then lycanthropy and i don't want to do that. So any suggestions for a P.C. curse?

[ImNotTrevor]

You could try the Metamorphica for options that are functionally genetic mutations, or this table: https://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/...random-curses/

[JNAProductions]

Once you draw a weapon, it cannot be sheathed or leave your hand willingly until it draws blood.

You just have terrible, rotten luck.

You are followed by theme music. Bad theme music.

You have a craving for human flesh that grows stronger the longer you resist it.

You are stalked by demons.

[Keltest]

You constantly emit a stench that most species find repugnant

You constantly emit a stench that most species find irresistible

You are constantly surrounded by a cloud of files or other swarming flying insects

You are unable to speak below a shout

You are unable to speak above a whisper

Everything you hold for more than X minutes bursts into flames, including people and animals

Your sweat is a mild adhesive, akin to syrup or glaze

You physically appear to be a zombie, though you are in fact perfectly alive

You are unable to remove your armor except under specific circumstances

[NRSASD]

You're doomed to die at age 34 (or the equivalent). Nothing is known about how you'll die, but die you most assuredly will unless the curse can be broken.

Your great-grandmother banished a powerful demon/devil/angel/slaadi and it's been seeking revenge on your family line ever since.

Any number of aversions or allergies (can't stand being touched by silver, holy water, moonlight, etc.) or genetic illnesses.

Wild animals attack or flee in fear from you and druids accuse you of being an abomination against nature (yet there are no other symptoms of otherworldly abilities)

Anything magical behaves unpredictably near you (anti-magic field, wild-magic zones, illusions break their parameters, etc.).

[AuraTwilight]

http://goblinpunch.blogspot.com/2015/01/d20-curses.html

This blog in general is pretty amazing.

[Berenger]

Character turns to stone statue in sunlight / moonlight.

Character is really ugly, possesses beastlike features.

Character bears birthmark indicating witchcraft or heresy.

Minor NSC near the character are prone to bad luck: a woman miscarriages, fresh milk spoils, a child breaks a leg...

Character is haunted by random illusions. Harmless things / sounds / persons appear as dangerous and vice versa.

Character feels uncomfortably cold and is icy to the touch.

[LokiRagnarok]

Spoiler: Memetic effects

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You always slightly remind people of their least favourite person, up to outright confusing you for them.

You always slightly remind people of their most favourite dead person, up to outright confusing you for them. Imagine a husband seeing his long deceased beloved wive in you, only to realize you are not her. Of course they might realize it's not your fault, but they likely won't want to associate with you nevertheless.

All children feel compelled to follow you and are very unhappy if they are removed from your presence.

Everyone insists you are invincible, despite your claims (and reality) otherwise. The more you protest, the more likely they will attempt to prove you are invincible.

When a crime near you happens, you always get blamed first, regardless of the logical circumstances.

You are visited by visions from distant past or alternate dimensions. These are almost always disturbing in some way.

If literacy matters: letters seem to slightly jump up and down in front of you.

Spoiler: Antimemetic effects

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People gradually forget about you after 1d6 days, unless they are in your presence of course.

Noone remembers your name. This affects all names regularly used for you. If you try to give yourself a new name, you also soon forget it.

You know you had close ones (lovers, children, ...), but you cannot remember anything about them. Sometimes random bits keep popping to the surface, but not if you make the conscious effort to remember something.

If you consume something, noone who saw you doing that remembers this kind of thing exists. You eat a piece of bread - everybody who watched you do it forgets bread exists until they rediscover it.
Now, let's talk about water

If you read a book, all copies of that book become blank.

Spoiler: Conjuration effects

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Something about you attracts things most people find unpleasant: spiders, snakes, .... can have the old fairy tale staple of "everytime you speak, a toad comes out of your mouth".

Spoiler: Transmutation effects

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From time to time, a random object around you animates (as per Animate Objects) and is hostile towards you. You probably shouldn't get anywhere close to an armory...

Your blood turns black when it leaves your body. If it falls on the ground, it causes a very small desecration effect/causes flowers to wilt/something else.

Everything about you appears only in three colors (pick some. I'd suggest black, red, white).

You do not feel pain. At all. Be sure to not leave that hand on the hot stove. Oh, and better check yourself for random splinters regularly.

Everyone around you is hungry all the time.

Everyone around you is more hostile toward others (but never towards you).

Everything around you gets more rotten, spoiled, muddy, disgusting etc. (Those three last ones are ripped straight from Good Omens).

Clothes get tighter, either on you or on people around you. They don't break, just get tighter. And cannot be destroyed by nonmagical means.

[goto124]

You turn into a penguin for 1d6 days. DM decides species of penguin.

[Inevitability]

"If you stay in the same city for over one month, you'll die."

It's a curse that won't be too deliberating in-game, but has a huge impact on the character and his family. Not being able to stay in one place makes it very hard for them to gain any long-lasting social contacts and it'll make most forms of stable income impossible. Not to mention that travel in general is dangerous.

The character in question might have grown up in a merchant's caravan or a travelling troupe. Later, he might have become a sailor or pedlar. There's a lot of potential here.

[Anti-Eagle]

You consistently bleed from a wound on your arm that refuses to heal. To keep this from being debilitating you require a relatively easy to brew potion. Horrible luck follows you when you have it on your person or are trying to brew it. The horrible luck follows you into real life.

[GrayDeath]

Nah, being cursed with "Contenders for worst GM ever" is not allowed.
Its FAR too powerful (and evil).

I myself would go with "your Ancestor banished a very very powerful outsider of opposite alignment to (enter families alignment).
It tries everything NOT involving its direct action (banished) to corrupt you to its alignment as that would lift the banishing effect and allow it fitting revenge for the slight of being banished."

[Segev]

You are remarkably lucky - good or bad is subjective - when it comes to discovering secrets, particularly ones over which people would kill. Unfortunately, efforts to convince people who wouldn't kill you for knowing it that the secret is true are thwarted by disbelief and coincidences making evidence hard to demonstrate.

[Firest Kathon]

Pathfinder's Oracle class has being cursed as a class feature, you can look at the available curses for inspiration. Note that Oracle curses come with benefits as well as a drawback.

[JAL_1138]

"May you live in interesting times." Everywhere you go seems to be affected by or soon to be affected by drastic social upheavals, revolutions, succession crises, wars, massive natural disasters, plagues, world-ending (or at least region-ending) threats, conspiracies, and/or other general chaos, happening soon after your arrival if it doesn't happen just before you get there. EVERYWHERE.

[Anonymouswizard]

You are followed by theme music. Bad theme music.

I really like this one.

You consistently bleed from a wound on your arm that refuses to heal. To keep this from being debilitating you require a relatively easy to brew potion.

Don't just go suggesting LankeyBugger"s idea without giving the proper credit

Horrible luck follows you when you have it on your person or are trying to brew it. The horrible luck follows you into real life.

Why would you ever take 'being Lankey' as an in-character curse? Next thing you know somebody's stolen your story, their girlfriend has joined your group, and your partner has stabbed you.

[goto124]

"May you live in interesting times." Everywhere you go seems to be affected by or soon to be affected by drastic social upheavals, revolutions, succession crises, wars, massive natural disasters, plagues, world-ending (or at least region-ending) threats, conspiracies, and/or other general chaos, happening soon after your arrival if it doesn't happen just before you get there. EVERYWHERE.

Also known as "being a player character"

[TheYell]

Whenever you meet someone with a name, you must either form an insulting rhyme with their name and say it out loud, or do 1d4 bite damage to your tongue.

[Bohandas]

In Ruby Gloom there was a character whose family was cursed to attract natural disasters (mostly lightning strikes and volcanic eruptions).

[JAL_1138]

Also known as "being a player character"

Pretty much (maybe up to 11--might entail a complete lack of "between adventures" downtime aside from short/long rests because too many horrible things are happening; DM's option, but the party might suffer too much from inability to easily resupply or spend time crafting adequately; I'd advise against that route).

It's a "curse" that doesn't screw the character over mechanically or make them behave strangely in RP, but certainly provides motive to go adventuring--they can't avoid it; adventures keep happening to them.

[Sam113097]

• You have no shadow
• Your shadow faces the opposite direction from everything else's
• Your eyes glow an iridescent magenta
• Your hair grows 10 times faster than a normal person's
• You have an irrational fear of a common animal (dog, chicken, etc.)
• Any spells you cast are accompanied by the sound of smooth jazz
• You can only learn one language, no matter how hard you try
• You somehow lose every key you ever have
• In games involving dice, you can only roll 7s. In card games, any card dealt to you will be a 7
• Unless you know a person very well, you always call them by a name that is slightly wrong (Jack instead of Jacob, for example)

[Bohandas]

You have no reflection, causing people to think you are a vampire.

[Kane0]

You are forever cursed to hear an echo of your own speech.

Seriously. Turn on 'listen to this device' on your headset and try to read a paragraph aloud.

Edit: You are forever cursed to experience Déjà vu every waking moment.

[Bohandas]

Gain a new allergy every seven years

[goto124]

Every pen, pencil or similar writing instrument you use will refuse to work unless you're testing it in one corner of the paper.

[ImNotTrevor]

Every table you ever use will be wobbly.

Whenever you are viewed by firelight, you appear to be a skeleton.

You are unable to die. You heal at a normal rate, and are by no means any more invincible that anyone else, but if you are hacked apart you have to lay there in constant agony until you regenerate. If you are wrapped in concrete and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.... guess where you're spending the next few millenia, unable to fully die, trapped inside your own mind?

Any food you try to eat turns to raw flesh in your mouth, and any water you try to drink turns to blood.

You are permanently followed by an incoporeal creature that plays pranks on you/insults you constantly.

Your consciousness actually resides in the amulet you wear. Whoever puts on the amulet, their personalities are entirely erased and replaced with yours. If you are removed, the body you were occupying drops dead.

[TheYell]

You are a subject of a false rumor that sacrificing you to a demon lord will cause him to grant a wish to your assassin.

You are the subject of a false rumor that fighting alongside you provides immunity to ranged attacks.

You handle normal-sized weapons as if they were one size too large.

You forsee the death of everyone you touch. You cannot tell if your visions are accurate.

You cannot tell the truth unless you are holding a ball of some size.

You are prone to sneezing fits when you make a critical hit.

You press forward until you are flanked before drawing your weapon.

You feel unable to attack unless you are blowing on a whistle.

Horns make you dance.

When meeting a total stranger, you falsely claim to have already met them.

You believe that you have the gift of Tongues as if a Druid. You don't.

You falsely believe you are immune to poison.

You believe you will die in the same spot you were cursed on a full moon, and not by any other threat.

You seek to convert all your wealth into coppers at every opportunity. You bury what you cannot carry under a small tree and then chop down the tree so nobody else can find your hoard.

You take orders from urchins.

You can cure leprosy by kissing.

You gain telepathic communication with demons.

You must utter two lies and one truth and the GM decides which one he prefers to be true hereafter.

The unconscious undead ignore you. Your companions are not protected.

You can command vermin to appear, and that's about it.

When your bare feet touch soil, you can breathe underwater.

Walls turn transparent to your gaze, but transparent both ways.

You can touch meat and know how fresh it is.

Whatever you throw circles you and lands behind you. If a wall is behind you it is stuck in the wall.

The ghosts of those you have wronged haunt you.

[goto124]

You are unable to die. You heal at a normal rate, and are by no means any more invincible that anyone else, but if you are hacked apart you have to lay there in constant agony until you regenerate. If you are wrapped in concrete and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.... guess where you're spending the next few millenia, unable to fully die, trapped inside your own mind?

Not very creepy in an RPG, where you can't actually feel the pain, not dying is very useful for not needing to roll new characters.

If you somehow got stuck in a block of concrete at the bottom of the sea, your DM should let you play a temporary (N)PC while your party members find a way to fish you out (which could actually be feasible depending on type of game)... or roll a new character.

Horns make you dance.

Which kind of horn?

You can touch meat and know how fresh it is.

Does this apply to creatures that are 1) made of meat and 2) still alive, such as humanoids?

*touches a human* "She's 222162 hours old!"

25 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, 3 days and 2 hours old.

[ImNotTrevor]

Not very creepy in an RPG, where you can't actually feel the pain, not dying is very useful for not needing to roll new characters.

If you somehow got stuck in a block of concrete at the bottom of the sea, your DM should let you play a temporary (N)PC while your party members find a way to fish you out (which could actually be feasible depending on type of game)... or roll a new character.

Indeed. I was just spouting ideas. It could be done well, but you'd need a system that supported it. I'm pretty sure this is more like a brainstorming session than a "Present well fleshed-out ideas" kind of thing.

[kraftcheese]

You are unable to die. You heal at a normal rate, and are by no means any more invincible that anyone else, but if you are hacked apart you have to lay there in constant agony until you regenerate. If you are wrapped in concrete and sunk to the bottom of the ocean.... guess where you're spending the next few millenia, unable to fully die, trapped inside your own mind?

Sooooo.....The Nameless One?